Sermon for December 5, 2010

Scripture: Matthew 3:1-12

“Turn”    Rev. Christopher Fazel

             Five years ago last October, my father, Dwight Fazel died; and this is my favorite story about that.  Dad died in about ten days.  He was not in any pain, as far as we could tell, and he was not in any way distraught about dying.   In the first few days, he was easy to talk to, but soon he started to sleep more and more, and for longer and longer periods, punctuated by brief moments of consciousness.   One day, I was in the room when Dad awoke from a long period of sleep and in a strong voice and in a spirit of expectancy said, “Is it over yet?” 

            Jung insists that the natural orientation of the soul is forward.  He says that the dreams of people who know that death is imminent fail to recognize death as any kind of end.  There is still an expectancy of the new that is coming.  And my story about Dad seems to confirm that. 

            But to be fair, what else can we do?  One of Dylan’s science books says that we are all time travelers.  We all move forward in time at the rate of one minute per minute.   Our very existence in this realm of the time/space continuum drags us forward into the unknown.  For it is only the past that is known.  Not only is the past known, but the past is set.  No one has yet figured out how to change the past.  The past is set.  However, I did not say the past is dead.  The past is most certainly not dead.  The past continues to impact profoundly on the present – for each of us individually and all of us as a whole.  It impacts us simply because we continue to remember it.  The human soul is very keen on remembering the past.  That’s why we build stone monuments, create rituals and develop writing.  Jesus gives to us a ritual of sharing bread and wine, and says, “Do this in remembrance of me.”  The purpose of the ritual is to remember the past so it can impact the present.  

            Ah, but there’s more in the past than just memories of blessings.  Isn’t that true? Who among us have not found ourselves in family situations where old hurts, resentments and regrets are dredged up and fastened to our limbs like the chains of Marley?  Who among us have not struggled with ourselves to let go of some past trauma that touched us either as victim or perpetrator or both?

            Fifty years ago, who would have guessed that a thousand year old war called the Crusades would be back to haunt us today?  The past impacts the present both for weal and woe, just as the present confronts us with choices, the consequences of which are hard to see.    These baffling polarities of pleasure and pain, of joy and sorrow, of victory and defeat, of coming together and falling apart that haunt our past and make our future so uncertain, frame the existential reality for all humans.   All religions and philosophies of any stripe deal with these polarities in one way or another.  Most religions including ours factor our existence down to a primal tension – the polarity of light and darkness.  Light is good, darkness is bad.  The first letter of John is typical, “God is light, and in God, there is no darkness at all.”  Our task, as our religion states, is to gather up the light and to leave behind the darkness.  This is accomplished (as we all know) by turning.    One of my favorite quotes that appear frequently in the Edgar Cayce readings says, “Turn toward to the Light, and all shadows fall behind.”  This turning from darkness to light is what our Bible calls repentance.  So, in Ephesians we read, “You were once darkness, but now in the Lord you are light.  Live as children of light, for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true.”

            Well, that’s all well and good, but in a practical sense, how do we discern between the fruits of light and the fruits of darkness.   How do we know what is good?  There’s the story of the Peace Corps workers who, in doing good, eradicated the cockroaches from a Philippine village.  Later the village was overrun by rats.  Only then did the volunteers discover that the cockroaches fed the geckos who in turn kept away the rats.  The fact is that in the real world, our choices are seldom clearly between the absolutes of light and dark or good and bad.  They are most often more ambiguous choices between lighter or darker; better or worse.  And all that we can do is the best that we can, exercising and developing our divine gift of wise judgment.  But we are given guidance.   We have the lessons of our past – both personal and collective.  We have role models from our own lives and from our collective cultures and religions.  And most importantly – if we are willing to accept it in faith, we have the guiding spirit of the Light of the World that we Christians call the Risen Christ.  

            This light of the world is always calling us into uncharted waters.  It invites us to let go of those familiar shadows of regret and resentment and to greet each morning as it is truly the first day of the rest of our lives.  It invites us to seek the good in every decision of every moment.  And it promises us that as we seek, we will find.  As we journey, we will be led through the dark valleys of error and disappointment eventually to that realm of unquenchable light – the promised land of green pastures and still waters – the home of the blessed, where we will be greeted with joyful welcome and the blessed assurance, “Well done, good and faithful servant.  Enter into the joy of your Lord.”  Thanks be to God.  Let us pray.

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